In January 2016, a four-year-old child in England was accused by his nursery school teacher to be radicalized after he drew a picture of a man holding a knife. The child was threatened to be reported to the British anti-radicalisation program Channel. This example is just one of many cases in the UK where children have been considered as potential terrorists. During 2015-2016, a total of 2 127 children under the age of 15 have been referred to the Channel programme.
Statistics show that children in no respect dominate participation in terrorist crimes. Only 4 % 3 514 arrests related to terrorism in the UK have been of children under 18 years of age. Although the UK government has stated that there is little evidence that children have been radicalised the number of referrals continue to rise.
This study asks the question of why children are being suspected as terrorists or security problems, although statistics and governmental statements contradict it. By conducting a discourse analysis aimed to study how children are being portrayed in political discourse, together with Carol Bacchi’s policy theory ’What’s the problem represented to be’ (WPR) it has been seen that portrayals of children hide other underlying political problems connected to this issue. Portrayals of children as easily manipulated and vulnerable individuals in need of protection work as a cover up for the state’s deeper need of control over the multifaceted and ambiguous extremist threat.